Tuesday, November 1, 2011

For the past two years, I have kept a running total here of the amount of snow that falls at my home on Compounce Mountain. I start the count on December 1 and end it whenever the last snow falls in the spring.

So what do I do with the 13 inches that fell here October 29-30?

Although most of the leaves had fallen from the trees in my neck of the woods, that was not the case in the surrounding area. The heavy wet snow that landed on the trees still full of leaves caused tree branches, as well as whole trees to fall and damage the power infrastructure.

As a result, my house has had no power, no telephone, no Internet access, no weather station, and no ham radio since Sunday morning. My electricity pimp has not dared to estimate when it expects to restore power, so the prospects for a quick fix look bleak.

The little woman says that we should buy a generator. I wonder how well that will go over as her Christmas gift?

Monday, August 29, 2011

There were no visits from Murphy this weekend despite a visit from hurricane Irene, which was downgraded to "tropical storm" status by the time it got here.

The rain was heavy and we totaled 3.76 inches over the weekend, not much when compared to other areas of the state which were pushing two digit totals.

The wind was constant with speeds reaching as high as 43 MPH Sunday morning and it was still blowing steadily when I went to bed Sunday night, but it did not do much damage. The yard was full of leaves, twigs, and branches, including one huge 20-foot branch that I had to subdivide before I could haul it away.

The guyed 55-foot tower was steady as a rock throughout the storm. I was a little concerned that the ground was so saturated that one of the guy anchors might come loose, but it never happened.

Friday, June 3, 2011

“RadioShack is now looking for input from us, as members of the larger DIY community, on parts we’d like to see them carry. There’s a video explaining what they’re looking for, and a place to add comments.”

Monday, May 2, 2011

He returned about 30 minutes later with a trophy. In the past, he has brought home dead birds, moles, voles, chipmunks, and mice. Last night, he brought home a bat and deposited it in his trophy case, also known as our front porch.

My job is to bury the dead. Actually, I just dump the dead in the storm drain so that our dogs don't find and perhaps eat the carcasses.

I got a small shovel to scoop up the remains. As I began to scoop up the bat, it chirped at me and fluttered its wings. The poor thing was still alive, but one wing was damaged (a big hole) and its body was cut up badly and seeping blood. In that condition, it was evident it would never fly again and would probably die sooner or later, so I decided to put it out of its misery.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

My daughter Hayley is pursuing a writing career. She has been blogging for awhile in various places on the Internet, but yesterday, she hit the big time when her blog post appeared on The Huffington Post for the first time.

Monday, April 11, 2011

The temperature hit 70 about ten minutes ago, but as I type this, I can still see a pile of snow sitting on the curb across the street. The accompanying photo juxtaposes that snow pile with the daffodils that are ready to bloom in our front yard.